In the Vietnamese IT business, generative AI is becoming more and more popular. Recently, the ITviec team has conducted a mini survey to capture the viewpoint of Vietnamese IT professionals. In addition to the high rate of adoption and usage, the future of generative AI in the workplace looks quite bright, based on the opinions of 144 respondents.

Shortened highlights:

  • 89.3% of IT professionals had used generative AI tools and 69.6% of them are applying those tools in their job.
  • ChatGPT is by far the most popular, with 100% awareness and 94.3% usage. GPT-4 and GitHub Copilot are next, with 48.3% and 21.8% usage, respectively.
  • 70.1% of surveyed IT professionals agree that generative AI makes them more creative, productive, and efficient.
  • Code completion (73.6%), Writing prompts (51.7%), Information gathering/research (49.4%), Code refactoring (32.2%) and Translation (32.2%) are the most frequently used applications as respondents answered. 
  • Undefined Data Accuracy is the most to be concerned about, chosen by 70.1% of respondents.
  • 51.5% of IT professionals already had a plan to learn about generative AI and 65.2% support the company to implement or keep using generative AI in the workplace.

Let’s go through the key takeaways we learned from the ITviec’s mini survey. 

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The majority of Vietnamese IT professionals are familiar with generative AI technology and tools such as ChatGPT, GPT-4 and GitHub Copilot

Since its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT has sparked a global interest in generative AI. 

In the last year, there have been over a million social media posts discussing artificial intelligence (AI) on Twitter and Reddit, according to GlobalData. Furthermore, in Statista’s 2023 survey with working professionals in the US, 29% of Gen Z, 28% of Gen X, and 27% of millennials used generative AI tools in the workplace. The industries with the highest rate of generative AI adoption are Marketing & Advertising, Technology, and Consulting, in that order.

Vietnamese IT professionals are also highly familiar with this cutting-edge technology, ITviec’s mini survey results say.

When asked if they had heard of generative AI technologies and tools, 98.6% of the respondents said “Yes.”

When looking at the most popular generative AI tools among the respondents, ChatGPT is by far the most popular, with 100% awareness. GPT-4 and GitHub Copilot are next, with 60.7% and 33.6%, respectively.

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Top 20 well-known generative AI technologies and tools. Source: ITviec’s mini survey

While it might seem that IT professionals are more likely to try out these technologies out of pure curiosity, peer pressure, or FOMO, further data shows otherwise.

89.3% of IT professionals shared that they had used generative AI tools and 69.6% of them had taken other actions to apply those tools in their job. The top 3 most-used tools are the same as the well-known tools mentioned previously.

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Top 3 most-used generative AI technologies and tools. Source: ITviec’s mini survey

Overall, 70.1% of surveyed Vietnamese IT professionals agree that generative AI makes them more creative, productive, and efficient. This is also in line with what developers around the world say in surveys from Github (70% say the tools will help them at work) and Stack Overflow (77% like the idea of using AI tools as part of their development workflow).

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IT professionals’ agreement level on the high productivity and efficiency of generative AI.

Source: ITviec’s mini survey

Given the substantial number of IT professionals already familiar and are using generative AI tools, comparing its application in “Large scale” and “Small & Medium scale” would be informative.

IT professionals in “Large scale” and “Small & Medium scale” companies use and rate generative AI productivity differently. 

Comparison table:

Insights from IT professionals in Large scale companies* Insights from IT professionals in Small & Medium scale companies**

Usage

(% of respondents who have used generative AI)

92% 87.8%

Application rate in their job

(% of respondents who are applying generative AI in their job)

58.7% 75.9%

Frequency of use

(% of respondents who are using generative AI on different frequency of use)

  • Daily: 51.9%
  • 1-3 times per week: 44.4%
  • 1-3 times per month: 3.7%
  • Daily: 51.7%
  • 1-3 times per week: 41.7%
  • 1-3 times per month: 6.6%
Productivity rating
(average rating of respondents about generative AI productivity applied to their work, on a scale from 1 to 10)
7.9 ★ 7.2 ★
Agreement level on the high productivity and efficiency of generative AI 74.1% 68.4%

*Large scale companies: more than 300 employees

**Small & Medium scale companies: less than or equal to 300 employees

The above table indicates that IT professionals in Small & Medium size companies are using generative AI more commonly in their job, compared to their peers in Large scale companies (75.9% vs. 58.7%). Despite the same usage frequency, generative AI productivity is rated to be higher when being used by IT professionals in large organizations (7.9 vs. 7.2). The differences could be due to the fact that the policies, internal readiness of the products and application costs are different between the two sizes of companies.

Top 5 advantages and concerns of generative AI

On the beneficial side, Code completion, Writing prompts, Information gathering/research, Code refactoring and Translation are the most frequently used applications as respondents answered.

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Top 5 advantages (applications) of generative AI. Source: ITviec’s mini survey

When it comes to disadvantages and concerns, contrary to what the media constantly spread, the “Job takeover” is not among the top three points that are the most concern by the surveyed IT professionals. In fact, it is in the top 5. 

Undefined Data Accuracy is the most worried about, chosen by 70.1% of IT workers. 

Undefined Data indicates that the data has no value or the value is unknown, so the output is either null or incorrect. This has a direct impact on the efficiency of these AI tool applications and the possibility to trace back their data analyzing process.

Content Quality Control Needed ranked second with 67.8%.

To ensure accuracy, relevance, and quality, content must be inspected and audited by qualified users. Generative AI is a powerful tool for content and idea development, but it cannot guarantee high-quality material or accuracy and may affect business-critical product outputs.

Ranked in 3rd position is the concern about Controversial Intellectual Property (42.5%). 

AI models are usually trained on large datasets from the internet. Using training data or products that are protected by copyright, privacy, or other regulations can lead to legal issues for individuals or organizations. 

“There are worries about the potential for misuse and the ethical implications of employing AI to produce content. In order to ensure that generative AI is utilized morally and responsibly, it is crucial that developers and governments address these issues.” – A respondent contributed.

Decision-making Biases (21.8%) and Jobs Take-over (20.7%) are next in line.

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Top 5 concerns of IT professionals about generative AI. Source: ITviec’s mini survey.

IT professionals are increasingly interested in learning about and applying generative AI in the workplace

51.5% of IT professionals already have a plan to learn about generative AI, according to the results. Also, 34.1% of respondents want to learn more about this technology by doing more study and using it in their daily job. 17.4% of respondents want to improve themselves and plan to take courses related to generative AI. 

This interest is likely encouraged by the fact that generative AI can make it easier for IT professionals to solve more difficult and important problems. For example, Github data shows that developers who used GitHub Copilot felt 88% more effective and coded up to 55% faster than those who didn’t.

“The future of generative AI is very promising. As technology continues to advance, we can expect even more impressive results from generative AI models.” – A surveyed respondent said.

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IT professionals’ plan to upgrade adapting to generative AI growth speed.

Source: ITviec’s mini survey

How about applying generative AI in the workplace? What are the opinions of IT professionals?

From the report, 65.2% of respondents stated that they support their company to start or keep using generative AI technology and its tools in the workplace (41.3% agree and 23.9% totally agree).

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IT professionals’ preference for using generative AI in the workplace. Source: ITviec’s mini survey

From the global perspective, Gartner predicted that by 2025, the percentage of data generated by generative AI will amount to 10% of all generated data (report in here); and by 2026, generative design AI will automate 60% of the design effort for new websites and mobile apps (report in here). The results of the ITviec’s mini survey show that, like IT professionals in other countries, Vietnamese IT professionals are also positive about the future of generative AI. 

“Generative AI is an essential component of the future of science and technology, to drive significant breakthroughs. It is capable of being the next big thing.” – A surveyed respondent said.

From this mini survey’s key findings, we hope to learn more about how Vietnamese IT professionals in different IT positions think generative AI will affect their jobs in the coming years. Stay tuned to find out more in our IT Salary Report 2023-2024.

You can download the full report about Vietnamese IT professionals’ views on Generative AI in here (English and Vietnamese) for further information.

Thanks for reading!